Selfish
by LucidKren
Summary: I have just about everything I have ever wanted but it's not enough. I want more (aka, Naruto pines for Sasuke and Sakura).
1. Chapter 1

I'm pathetic. All my dreams come true and I'm still unhappy.

The world is at peace (for now, at least). Sasuke and I finally understand each other (we saw each other's guts). I'm on track to become Hokage one day.

Then why am I unhappy?

I smile and laugh, talk with my comrades and mingle with my villagers.

I want more.

I'm unsatisfied with what I have.

How selfish can I be?

I have everything I wanted. Except…

Except I feel a chasm growing inside-a dark, deep pit of want and selfishness.

It's growing by the day, growing by all the moments I don't have what I really want. Even when I'm with them.

I want Sasuke.

I want Sakura.

I want them by my side, forever. I want my days to be filled with their presence. Even when we aren't doing anything. Even if we are doing boring things. Even if we are so busy in whatever we are doing we don't have time to even think. It would be okay. I would be with them.

I want to live with them. I fight by their sides and defend them and am in turn defended by them. We kill for one another and would gladly die for one another. We have seen eachother in our most vulnerable moments.

But it isn't enough.

I want domestic shit. I want to fight over chores. I want to pay bills together. I want kitchen misadventures and triumphs.

I want what my mother had with my father with them.

But I don't even know how to go about it. It's not that I'm scared of rejection (it would crush me). I just don't know how to even broach the subject.

We are at a convergence in our lives. I see our paths meeting at this point, and we could either continue on all together, or split off.

We have fought too damn hard to just pass on through each other's lives. Oh, we'd still see each other. But it wouldn't be the same.

Not by a long shot.

I could see Sasuke and Sakura coming together, making a little them. I could find great happiness with someone (maybe Hinata) and have a couple of kids.

We would still see each other, still be friends. But our lives would be centered on those worlds, and not Team 7.

We would be happy.

But it's not what I want.

The world of Team 7 is one of heartache, pain, and desperation. But it's also one of hard won understanding and love. Endless love.

I want Team 7. I want Sasuke and Sakura.

I just have to figure out how to tell them. I'll just have to be content and deal with this growing chasm until then.

Heh.

Told you I'm pathetic.

"…I'm sure you'll figure it out, Naruto."

"Thanks for listening, Iruka-sensei."

"Anytime, Naruto. Anytime."

Standard Disclaimer Applies. Leave a comment please.


	2. Confessing

The ground is cold and wet in the pre-dawn hours. To the three young adults sprawled out across the grass it feels refreshing. Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura had spent the morning sparring. Before the group had started, the field had been nice and even, with a few trees and rocks scattered about. The field was incredibly uneven now, craters and hills where once there was none and scorched earth where thriving plants once stood.

Naruto stares up into the gray sky and decides enough was enough. Today he would just say what needed to be said and face the consequences like a shinobi.

The young man pushes himself into a sitting position to face his comrades. Sensing a change in the atmosphere, Sasuke and Sakura sit up too.

"I love you."

Sasuke's face doesn't change expression. Sakura raises her eye brow, as if to say "Alright, what else?"

Naruto endeavors to elaborate.

"I love both of you."

Or rather, he tries.

"In what way?" Sasuke inquires.

"Every way."

Silence, then, "I want to move in with you. Make a home with you."

Sakura's eyes widen, shocked by the confession. Sasuke looks thoughtful.

More silence.

Then, "I couldn't be there as much as you would want me too."

Sasuke is looking at him straight on, a blunt honesty in his dark eye that can be seen (Sasuke has grown out his fringe to conceal the other).

"That's okay. I would have you some of the time at least."

Maybe that made him sound pathetic, or desperate. But it was the truth. Sasuke would never be able to just settle down. There would be a part of him always drawn away. Naruto gets that. He's pretty sure Sakura gets it too.

More silence. It seems to be a continued theme. Then, at some unknown signal, Naruto and Sasuke's eyes focus on Sakura. Her green eyes were focused inward, assessing her thoughts. Her left hand pulls absentmindedly at the grass.

They wait. She was always waiting on them, after all.

"I've loved Sasuke for what feels like forever. It was a simple fact to me for a long time," she looks Naruto in the eyes, "Naruto…you're my hero. But you also need a good knock to the noggin every now and then too," her lip quirks up, "I love you. I'm just not sure if it's in the same ways."

Naruto smiles, and takes her hand, "That's okay, Sakura-chan. You can take a life time to figure it out."

Feelings were complicated things.

Her green eye's shin brightly, and she leans forward, placing a chaste kiss on Naruto's cheek.

"…How would we do this?" Sasuke's expression was serious. A wrong answer could shut this down.

Frankly, this conversation has gone better than anything Naruto had imagined.

"As a team."

Sakura tried to suppress a snort and fails. She looks apologetic, "Sweet but corny."

"It's true though." Sasuke responds.

A slow, cautious smile spreads across Naruto's face. He holds out a hand to Sasuke. For a brief moment he is scared that Sasuke won't take it. But then Sasuke does take it, and in turn extends his other hand to Sakura, who takes it.

They'll do this. They'll move in and spend their days together. Or they will at least try.

It's more than Naruto thought he would get.

He savors the moment. He knows the road will not be easy, but he's willing to endure it. The reward will be worth it.

Sasuke and Sakura are worth all the effort in the world.

He can be content now.

Maybe it pays to be selfish sometimes.

* * *

Notes: I was asked to write a follow-up. This will likely be the last installment. Please tell me what you thought.


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